As the days start to lengthen and it feels like we’re edging out of winter we all look forward to the new life and freshness of spring. Does your website feel the same or is this a good opportunity for a bit of housekeeping to make it spring fresh?
Check your admin users
It is natural in business that staff will periodically move on, either to other roles within your business or elsewhere.
When did you last review the list of users with access to your website’s administration area to ensure that only staff with a current business need have access?
Leaving accounts active for staff no longer employed can lead to severe problems, The British Museum had a disgruntled ex-contractor return and use their, still active, access to shut down a number of exhibits ahead of a busy weekend. If their access been revoked promptly they would not have been able to do so. For e-commerce sites you also have a duty of care to the personal data of your customers, per the GDPR legislation.
For WordPress sites, this is as simple as viewing the Users list in the admin and checking that all those under the Administrator, Shop Manager or Editor tabs still need access, and revoking or deleting any who are no longer needed.
From a security point of view you should avoid sharing logins and each staff member should have their own username and unique password for each site.
Password housekeeping
When did you last change your website admin login’s? Could anyone else know what that password is or is it even in use elsewhere? It is good practice to rotate (i.e. re-generate) passwords periodically to avoid any old record of it escaping your control. Most importantly, ensure that any password you choose is strong and unique, i.e. never re-use the same password on more than one site. Any good password manager will have a password generator and if you’re not using a password manager (why not?) then you can still generate a really good password using online tools – WordPress has a strong password generator built in for example.
If you don’t already have 2-factor authentication enabled you may wish to add that to keep your borders fortified.
We help many of our clients by undertaking an annual security health check to ensure that they are staying ahead of the attackers as we know they are advancing rapidly and taking advantage of even the smallest chink in your armour. This would include reviewing your account access levels and permissions.
Clean up your website features & content
Websites evolve over time, is yours still showing outdated features or content? Are the Christmas decorations and opening hours still on your homepage? Should you have your latest offers front and centre? All of these things can make your website seem dated and potentially lose business. In some cases, you may even find you have features, and plugins for those, which are no longer relevant and removing these would free up space for more valuable content. Removing redundant plugin(s) can also speed up your website and even make it more secure and easier to manage going forward. As plugins age so do their maintainers and a plugin that was once popular and important may now have been abandoned by it’s author posing a risk to your site.
Does your content read as being old and stuffy? If so a content & user experience (UX) review might be just the thing to brighten things up and increase your enquiry rate.
Perhaps it’s time for your website to grow a new feature, some aspect of your business that isn’t already available or something that would make your life easier, it could be anything from a listing of clearance items, a newsletter or event sign-up form or even a customer management system to allow you to run your business more effectively?
We can help turn ideas like these into practical enhancements that improve user experience and save you time.
Scrub up your mailing list
Do you send out newsletters to your customers regularly, if so when did you last check on your bounce rate and interactions, do you need to remove old recipients who’ve not engaged for years (or try to re-engage them), are there new active customers who you’re not sending to that might appreciate your newsletters, is your template on-brand and fitting with your website or a relic from previous seasons?
Dust off your marketing
Are you still running Google Ads campaigns using the same words & phrases as last year? The world moves on and so must your choice of terms and advertising platform (Google, Facebook, LinkedIn ads for example) to remain relevant and cost-effective rather than old and dusty.
With so many changes to online advertising is your website using the latest AI optimised campaigns to get the best conversion rates and lowest cost per lead? Are your landing pages fresh and inviting? A Digital Marketing review might be what you need to clean up your marketing efforts, from your current campaigns and landing pages to your tracking setup, helping ensure your budget is working as effectively as possible.
A fresh coat of paint
Ok, don’t try putting emulsion on your monitor, however your website’s design does age, is yours still in the last decade? If so, it might be time to speak to our designers about adding a bit of pizzazz back into things, or even taking that one step further with a full user experience review so your website is spring-fresh, sparkling and doing all it can to drive your business forward.
Ready for a refresh?
If your website could do with a spring clean, our website takeovers and ongoing support services can help keep it secure, up to date and in tip-top shape.
Is it time to talk to us to see how we can help turn your website into something even more powerful
